Catio a breath of fresh air for Bow Valley SPCA cats

Canmore SPCA

A male cat named Elvis enjoys the sun on his face and a fresh pot of growing cat grass in the catio cat patio that was built this summer at the Bow Valley SPCA in Canmore. It has a regular human door which also has a small cat door in it to let the cats go outside when they want. photo by Pam Doyle/www.pamdoylephoto.comPam Doyle/BA

A cat basks in the sun at the Bow Valley SPCA at 123 Bow Meadows Crescent in the Elk Run Industrial Park in Canmore in the new catio patio. Now cats can go outside when they want to. photo by Pam Doyle/www.pamdoylephoto.comPam Doyle/BA

The Bow Valley SPCA in Canmore will soon have two dog runs outside the dog rooms which are at the back of the building shown here. First the boulders will be moved back and a cement pad will be poured and then the first two of three dog runs will be built to allow dogs to go outside when they choose to. photo by Pam Doyle/www.pamdoylephoto.comPam Doyle/BA

The Bow Valley SPCA at 123 Bow Meadows Crescent in the Elk Run Industrial Park in Canmore now has a catio on the south side of the building so that cats can go outside when they want to. photo by Pam Doyle/www.pamdoylephoto.comPam Doyle/BA

What was once the darkest room in the building has been transformed into the envy of all shelter felines. The Bow Valley SPCA recently built a cat patio, they call a catio, on the south side of the building.

Thanks to $29,500 grants from the Maja Foundation and the Donner Canadian Foundation, the BVSPCA was able to open a wall and install a metal human door, complete with a smaller cat door and attach a caged outdoor enclosure with several levels of catwalks for the animals to climb up and lounge upon.

“Our first estimates for the project were really high, “Joseph Potts, BVSPCA board member said. “But thanks to Keir Lamar, who is the partner of one of our board members, we got it done.”

Lemar put in the metal door on his days off from his job at Candek and recruited friends in the construction industry to help out with the carpentry and other details. Board members decided the first catio would be built outside the only room that doesn’t have a window and was previously the darkest cat room.

“We will be putting a window in that room too,” Potts said.

But the cats aren’t the only ones to have fun in the sun. There are plans to install two dog runs outside of two dog rooms at the shelter this summer.

“The idea is, if you keep a dog in a shelter for a long time, how to you improve its quality of life?” Potts said. “Any dog that has been here a long time will get the first room with a dog run.”

The runs will be 20 feet long with partitions between each run so that the dogs don’t get into the habit of running the fence with each other and hurting their paws.

“Right now we have five outdoor runs but none of them are attached to the building,” Potts said.

“Keir Lamar also got a couple of construction companies to do some free grading for the dog runs,” Potts said. “All we have to do is pay for gas for the equipment they use.”

The outdoor runs will also be open for the animals in the winter, depending on the weather conditions.

For more information or to donate for future projects or adopt a cat or dog, please visit www.bowvalleyspca.org.